44 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 



hold to be a contemporary with it. Now, as touch 

 ing chaos, that by the ancients was never dignified 

 with divine honour, or with the title of the god. 

 And as for Love, they absolutely bring him in with 

 out a father; only some are of opinion, that he came 

 of an egg that was laid by Nox, and that on chaos 

 he begat the god and all things else. There are 

 four things attributed to him, perpetual infancy, 

 blindness, nakedness, and an archery. There was 

 also another Love, which was the youngest of the 

 gods, and he, they say, was the son of Venus. On 

 this also they bestow the attributes of the elder 

 Love, as in some sort we will apply unto him. 



This fable tends and looks to the cradle of na 

 ture, Love seeming to be the appetite or desire of 

 the first matter, or, to speak more plain, the natural 

 motion of the atom, which is that ancient and only 

 power that forms and fashions all things out of 

 matter, of which there is no parent, that is to say, 

 no cause, seeing every cause is as a parent to its 

 effect. Of this power or virtue there can be no 

 cause in nature, as for God we always except him, 

 for nothing was before it, and therefore no efficient 

 cause of it. Neither was there any thing better 

 known to nature, and therefore neither genus nor 

 form. Wherefore whatsoever it is, positive it is, and 

 but inexpressible. Moreover, if the manner and 

 proceeding of it were to be conceived, yet could it 

 not be by any cause, seeing that, next unto God, it 

 is the cause of causes, itself only without any cause. 

 And perchance there is no likelihood that the 



